I have a topic I want always to be linked from my custom home page. There are widgets for popular topics, suggested topics etc. but nothing for one specific topic. How would you write a custom html/script block to do that?

So, I tried it out. Turns out package.json is NOT updated when you install a plugin. However, node_modules is updated since installing a plugin actually does npm install. I want a completely redeployable container, so I think the only way right now is to install plugins by changing package.json in my github repo. Not the most flexible way, but on the other hand being able to deploy the forum to another server in 10 minutes if something brakes is pretty useful...

I'm building a dockerized nodebb, and I need to decide which folders should go into a persisted volume to survive rebuilds/restarts... package.js is updated every time you install a plugin, but is anything else updated? public/stylesheets seems modified? Am I best off persisting everything?

@Bri No, you understood right. I just want to disable /recent (and basically everything else except /) for anonymous users. And I've disabled guest access to both navigation and all categories (but you can still access it as anonymous)